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HOiN. B,^ F. HALLETT, OF MASS., 



AT 



THE DEMOCRATIC RATIFICATION MEETING IN WALTHAM, MASS., FRIDAY 
^ EVENING, NOVEMBER 2, 1S55. 



r :' 



Mr. HALLETT was loudly applauded as lie 
cttme upon the platform, and spoke as follows: 

Mr. President and Fellow-Citizens: "When 
we are called upon to exercise thai great prerog- 
ative that belongs only to American citizens, the 
right of free suffrage, we should well consider 
what are the questions that call for our deliberate 
action. That power which every man holds in 
Uiis great country — the power by his own will 
of declaring, as one of the majority w/io exer- 
cises the like power, who shall be his rulers, 
■who shall make the laws by which he is to abide; 
tliat great pov.-er, when you come to exercise it, 
is one with which no man should proceed to the 
ballot-box without careful deliberation. Now, 
gentlemen, Vv-e are upon the eve of a State election, 
merely; and, as you know, it is the custom of 
political orators to say — " This coming election 
IS the most important one ever had in the history 
of the world!'' Tliis, though not generally ap- 
plicable to a State election, is essentially true, in 
one particular, of the election in Massachusetts; 
beo^iuse, although you are to choose only your 
State officers, you are taking the preliminary 
steps to that great division of the jieople of this 
country, which is to be made, North and South, 
Uiroughout this Union next year, in the presi- 
dential election. In that election, whatever may 
be the local names of factions, there will be but 
two parties; one, a party fi)r the Constitution, 
tJie other, a party against the Constitution; one, 
a party for the Union, the other, a party for dis- 
union; one, a sectional party composed of a 
sectional portion of the North, the other, a party 
of the whole country. Now, on which siac are 
J'ou going to stand ? That is the issue. 

And why does this great national issue arise 
now.' Ordinarily we go into an election — as we 
have for the last twenty -five years — with, the Dem- 
ocratic party and the Vv^hig party as the main 
armies on both sides contending under their well- 
known flags; and then we knew where we were 
and wliat the results were likely to be. But in ' 
Iho next presidential election we are to have a ■ 
ftew organization, or rather disorganization, of I 
parties. Some people, very wise in their own ; 
conceit, pretend to have found out that the old \ 
parties were corrupt, and must be broken up, and | 
iliat a new party must he formed, an incoryuptible \ 
now party of which they were to be the incon-iipti- i 
We (?) leaders, and which was to be made up of ' 
all anti-slavery men and Native Americans taken ; 
from the old parties. How they accomplished I 
this, wo saw last winter in the State house ! But i 
bad as the new parties both have been in prac- j 



ticeand legislation, OKe good result certainly has 
flowed from their winnowing out old parties. It 
[ has very much tended to purify the Uemocrali« 
I party, and has relieved it from a great many meu 
j who were impatient, selfish, dissatisfied while in 
I our ranks, and were always wanting to be som»- 
: thing other than Democrats. If there are any men 
, of that description within your acquaintance, wImj 
! have always been a disturbing element in tlie 
j party, all I can say is, if they have gone over to 
' the Free-Soil parly, or the Fusion party, or the 
Know Nothing party, just " /e< them slide.'" 
: [Applause.] And, moreover, if you know any 
; man that you have fostered and warmed intii 
, political life on your hearths — one you had taken 
I from his unfriended boyhood, and brought up by 
; your hands, carried in your arms, cherished ia 
I your bosoms, and trained up to manhood — and 
I then, by your suffrages, placed him in offices of 
i honor, profit, and trust, and Just when you sup- 
; posed you had imbued him with Democratic prin- 
ciples, and made him true to his party and trua 
\ to his country — you find that man, after all your 
training, all your kindness, all your confidence, 
and after all the honors you had h.eaped upon him, 
deserting first to the "secret order'' of midnight 
cabals, and then betraying them and enUsting 
under the black flag of disunion, and there dt^- 
nouncing the Democratic Administration, sneer- 
ing at the Constitution, and proclaiming that he 
is ready to "let the Union slide" — I say to 
you, see to it that you " slide" that man clean off 
from all connection with the Democratic party,, 
now and forever!* [Loud applause.] 

And I pray you, brother Democrats, now, when 
we are once more getting to be apeaceable family,, 
when we can get together and talk of the Consti- 
tution and the Union; when we can talk of the 
fraternity of the northern Democracy and the 
southern Democracy — one great brotherhood 
bound together for the good of tho whole coun- 
try in one bond of common union; — now that we 
can do that without the hypocrisy, the insinua- 
tions, the backbiting, the pitiful side issues of 
men coming in with tlieir narrow prejudices, and 
sectarianism, and sectionalism; now, that we can 
do that, I say, let us shut the door and keep those 
men out! — never let them back into your confi- 
dence, to disturb our peace and betray our party ! 
[Cheers.] 
Now, then, what arc these issues that aiv 

* IJon. N. P. B.VNK9, of VV'althani, formerly a Democrnt, 
in liiuspcecliimlie iiopub'ican convention iii Maine, speak- 
ing of the preservation ot' tlie I'nion, said : " / am u^ing^ 
in a cerUritistate of ciTcumstattcst, to lst it slide !" 






brought before the people ? It is said, suddenly, 
that there are two awful terrors that are about to 
destroy the institutions of our country. One of 
these great terrors is, slavery; the other arises 
from the foreign-born cilizens tliat are among us. 
These two things, one would suppose, from the 
excitement that has taken place recently about 
tJicm, were new tilings just discovered. You 
would suppose, from the arguments of these 
people, that tlicy have made a grand discovery. 
They tell you that you arc; to restrict yourselves 
to the narrow limits of two ideas, one of anti- 
alavery, another of hatred to foreign born, and 
that there you are to stop, and have nothing to 
do for your country beyond them. AnfJ, from 
the way in wliich these two propositions arc put 
fjrward as the "paramount issues," it would ap- 
pear that these things — slavery and foreigners — 
had never before existed in this country. 

Who that listens to these declaimera would 
(suppose that this country, when it wont into the 
battles of the Revolution, was made up of foreign 
born and native born, and no man either knew 
or inquired whence another came } Who would 
suppose that when the Union was formed most 
of the original States had the institutioii of do- 
mestic slavery, and said not a word about it, 
except to agree to respect each other's rights, 
and send back fugitives from service? Who 
would sui)pose that tiiis institution of slavery, 
existing as a fixed domestic institution in one 
half the States of the Confederacy, from that 
day to this, a period of seventy years, with the 
number of adopted citizens increasing from that 
day to this, and with such an accession of terri- 
tory, such a vast expansion of our country, that 
you can dip one hand in the Atlantic on the one 
side, and the other in the Pacific on the other 
aide, and say, this great country is ours! — who 
would suppose, I say, from the clamor of these 
new parlies, that we had gone on in this way, 
and become what \ve are, and yet had foreign 
born and slavery all the while existing among 
us ? Yet such is the fact, and where has been 
the destruction, the ruin of our country, from 
aither of these sources? Is not that one fact 
enough to teach us that all this clamor about 
tliese two sources of danger, against which we 
are told the whole North must fuse and combine, 
is utterly unfounded — got up, devised, and fab- 
ricated with some other end in view than the 
good of the country? 

TfiE KKOW NOTHINO ISStJE. 

I am not going to speak at length this evening 
upon the question of foreign born, but merely 
allude to it. A great many men say that we must 
•make up a party exclusively against the infiu- 
ence of foreign-born citizens among us, and es- 
pecially that we must " down icilli the Pope," who 
lives a great way off — we do not exactly know 
vrhere, for he has scarcely a foothold upon which 
to stand from day to day; and instead of exhort- 
ing us, as our good old fathers did, against " the 
devil and his works," they tell us that there is 
nothing now to be feared but " the Pope and his 
works." [Laughter and cheers.] I suppose 
there are some very honest and sincere men and 
■women who are terribly afraid of the Pope, and 
I pity them very much. I cannot but commis- 
erate those citizens who are so wofuUy fright- 
ancd at this "raM'-head and bl<)ody-b(mes." 
[Laughter.] I am very sorry for them, and 1 
v.^t them to pluck up courago aad get cured. 



If they are terrified at the foreign population 
among us, and really fear that the Pope and the 
Irishmen will murder or drive all the native 
Americans out of the country, I really pity them 
again, that they are so much influenced bv such 
weak fears. I want to stand by them; and I can 
assure them that the Democratic party, whether 
successful or not, in this State, will certainly bft 
successful in the United States, and they will 
protect them. [Applause and hisses.] I tell you, 
my friends of the secret order, you may need that 
protection by-and-by, because under that you 
derive the only power that enables you to hold 
your secret midnight lodges, and to stand here 
and hiss to-night. [Loud cheers.] If it was not 
for that Democratic power which gives freedom 
to every man, instead of standing here to-night 
under the shield of that Constitution you are try- 
ing to destroy, of that Union you are trying to 
dissever, you would have depotism over yoa; 
and should you dare to hold a secret or publite 
meeting, and speak upon any subject, the first 
word or the first hiss that came from your heads 
would be followed by a file of soldiers carryir^ 
you off to some Bastile. [Loud applause, mij> 
gled with faint hisses.] That is what you ow« 
to American institutions, which you are trying 
to break down, by these futile attempt-'^ to incifie 
hatred of races, and bring np sectional issues, 
and form geographical parties. 

Upon that point, fellow-citizens, the foreien 
born, there is no danger. We have got only 
about two millions of foreign born among us. I 
v/ish they were doubled in our broad prairies-1 
I care not how many come here if they will come 
and settle our lands, and bring with them thn 
capital better than tlie paper stocks your bank* 
and corporations deal in, the capital of bones, 
and muscles, and brains, and sound industry. 
[Apjilause, and a few hisses.] That i.s the capital 
which has built up the United States of America, 
which has made "the wilderness to blossom aa 
the rose." Here are two millions of foreign 
born, I say, and we have twenty-four or five 
millions of native born against these tv/o mil- 
lions, and I reckon we can take care of them! 
[Laughter.] I'here is no foundation for any 
alarm on that point. I am not willing to give in 
my adhesion to the Know Nothing doctrine that 
holds up the idea that twelve Americans cannot 
flog one Irishman ! [Loud laughter and applause.] 
Moreover, I believe that whenever it is necessary 
to flog anybody, to dot'end and protect this couu- 
try, and esjiecially if we should ever have occa- 
.sion to flog England, which I trust we shall not, 
there are no men who would go into it with suah' 
a hearty sliillalah relish as the Irishmen. [Ap- 
plause.] They would stand by you to-day oa 
tliey did at Bunker Hill, and at Yorktown, at 
New Orleans, at Monterey and Buena Vista; as 
they did in every battle that lias immortalized 
the fields that Americans have won. Let that 
pass. 

TIlC " isms" of MASSACHUSETTS. 

It is a little deplorable that, m the Common- 
wealth of IMassachusctts, the most densely-pop- 
ulated State, for its territory, of aii}^ in the Uniooj 
the State that has the most schools, the greatasi 
number of churches, the highest degree of edi>- 
cation, — it is amazing, rtwrt-i.ag, that here, in this 
Commonwealth, two sucli absurdities as Know 
Nothingism and Abolitionism should takcdeeperr 
root than in any other part of thi'3 country! 



Why is it? Arc religion and education adverse 
to good government ! Docs religion and educa- 
tion tend to make men fanatics instead of peace- 
ful, moral citizens, nullificationists instead of 
luiionists? I will not believe it. It is a perver- 
sion. Aljove all it is a perversion of the pulpit, 
in the first instance, to political purposes, and 
(JUt of that has grown up this great, wide-spread 
evil. It has been fostered by the practice of 
sending missionaries in the guise of ministers, 
and anti-slavery lecturers all over the Common- 
■wnealth, who, instead of preaching the Bible, 
preach politics; instead of preaching the Consti- 
tution, preach disunion, mstead of preaching 
brotherly love, preach hatred of sections and 
races, hatred of foreign born, hatred between 
■the North and the South, and stir up intolerance 
and all manner of uncharitableness among us. 
Let us banish these ideas and teachings, and 
come back to the doctrines of the fathers, to the 
■Rijjle and the Constitution. 

Now, as regards this issue of hatred to foreign- 
born citizens, I pass it over with this single re- 
mark, that I can never cease to bear in mind this 
fact: When a man boasts that he is a native-born 
American citizen, and derides another man who 
is not native born, but who has the same rights 
of citizenship as he has, it seems to me that the 
adopted citizen may well say to the native born, 
•* Why, sir, you arc an American citizen by acci- 
dent; you were born here and could not help it. 
I, sir, am an American citizen by choice; I came 
here when my will and my mind brought me 
here." And, as has been well said in other 
Epspects, the only difference between a full-grown 
American citizen born here, and the other citizen 
who has come hero and been made a citizen, is, 
that, so far as concerns this new world, one of 
them came into the world without any clothes 
oji,and the other with his clothes on. [Laughter 
and loud applause.] Let us thank God that there 
is room enough here for both to work in and con- 
tinue to clothe themselves, and to be happy and 
prosperous. 

THE FUSION ISSUE — "THE AGGRESSIONS OF THE 
SLAVE POWER." 

But I want to touch more directly upon this 
qtfestion of anti-slavery — this fusion doctrine — 
which is now in the field as the very newest of 
the " new parties." Passing over this cpiestion 
of the terrible aggressions of the Catholics, which 
some very timid people are so frightened about, 
lot us look at this other issue — "this great and 
paramount issue," as Mr. Julius Rockwell calls 
It: " The aggression nf the slave power." Can any- 
body tell me what that means? Why, when 
Mr. Senator Sumner gets up to address an audi- 
ence, he asks, " Are you in favor of freedom or 
are you in favor of slavery?" Suppose you answer 
*'yes," or "no," what does itamoun't to? Sup- 
pose you answer we are all in favor of freedom; 
what then, Mr. Sumner ? " Why — why — I don't 
^actly know," says Mr. Sumner, only he reads 
an advertisement for a runaway negro down 
South, and then goes off into some fine flourish 
of rhetoric and plenty of quotations from the 
el,a;5sical dictionary. 

But let us follow him up with the practical 
qnestion, " What are you going to do? Suppose 
you could combine all the North against the 
South, are you going to dissolve the Union?" 
"Oh, no," says Mr. Sumner; "we arc for the 
Ujxion, provided wc can drire slavery out of it." 



"But suppose you cannot drive it out of the 
States or out of the Territories, and keep the 
South in the Union, what then? Will you /orc« 
the South to stay in the Union and be ruled by 
negroes? Will you fight the South." "Yes," 
says Senator Wade, of Ohio, " that is just what 
wc mean to do — ' set the dogs on them.' " That is 
his fusion nnnedy. The Black Rejmblicans are 
to get an Abolition President and an Abolition 
Congress if they can, and vote the South down; 
and then, if the southern members retire from 
Congress, and refuse to be bound by it, the Abo- 
lition leaders are to "set the dogs on them!" 
Who are to be " the dogs?" Why, the farmers, 
the mechanics, the workingmcn, the "Know 
Nothings" of Massachusetts and other Abolition 
States, — they are to be " the dogs," to carry on a 
civil war with the South for the benefit of Messrs. 
Seward, Wade, Sumner, Wilson, and company, 
to make them the great men of the North. [Cries 
of "No! no!"] No, you will not do it; I 
know you will not do it; the North will never 
do it. 

I tell you, then, that this plausible question, 
" Are you for freedom or are you for slavery?" 
is not the real i.ssue. Tlie real question is, " Are 
you for the Constitution or against it? Are you 
for upholding the Government of the United 
States or for anarchy, revolution, and disunion?" 
That is the question. If you are for the Consti- 
tution, then you are for the existence of the Union 
under that Constitution just as it stands, with 
slavery existing, just as our fathers found it. 
Not as a national but as a State right institution, 
with the principle inseparable from the right of 
self-government that grows out of it, viz: the 
right of every political comnumity to regulaU* 
that matter for themselves under the Constitu- 
tion. That is the Democratic doctrine to settk 
all these sectional and geographical differences, 
which by agitation arc made so often to threaten 
the Union. 

There must be some point of sound conserva- 
tism touching the slavery question, upon which 
Union men North and South must agree to re- 
pose, or the two sections will finally irritate each 
other into disunion. Where shall wc find it? 

This new fusion or Republican party, as they 
miscall themselves, offer no remedies for the evils 
they complain of, except their insane idea of get- 
ting possession of the Government and conquer- 
ing the South ! 

The Democratic party propose a clear and dis- 
tinct settlement of all these sectional quarrels. 
It is" the principle of non-inleri^ention by Congress 
with slaverij in the States and in the Territories. 

That is simply the fundamental doctrine of 
Democratic institutions, the right of self-govern- 
ment, — a wonderful pacificator, if we will only 
apply it to the Union, theState, the Territory, th« 
town, the parish, the family, each in its proper 
sphere, each underits own proper constitution. 

The zealots, and fanatics, and reformers who, 
for twenty-five years, have been casting about 
for a place to rest their lever on to move the world, 
have settled down upon rum and negroes. The 
whole statesmanship of the country, they tell us, 
must now be fused and absorbed in tliat. If there 
were no alcohol, there would be no vice; if there 
were no social distinction between negroes and 
white men, there would be no slavery. Henc* 
all this false legislation about temperance, and all 
this sectional clamor at the North aliout slavery 
at the South. Are they not both wrong? There 



can be no moral reform cfTccted by mere legisla- 
tion, unless the legislation is just, and based on 
Bound constitutional principles. 

THE MAINE LAW ISSUE. 

Let us tost the modern legislation on alcohol. 
Instead of following the sound ]irinrif)le of our 
fathers, which was to regulate the evils that God 
Almighty had permitted to exist among them; 
instead of recognizing in civil government the 
principle God has established in divine govern- 
ment that man is a free agent, and appealing to 
his reason, these modern law-givers contend that 
tlie only way to make men virtuous is to destroy 
all temjitafions to vice — to prohibit and remove 
from use every good thing that can be abused to 
a bad use. 

Hence, instead of regulating the use of intoxi- 
cating drinks, as our fathers did for two hundred 
years, they undertake to make all use of it for 
drink, a crime. But the killing inconsistencv is 
that when they undertook to make it a cri7ne, they 
made only one half of it a crijne, punishable with 
the house of correction, and left the other half as 
free from crime as drinking water. They make 
it a crime for one man to stand behind a counter 
and take sixpence for a glass of alcohol, and they 
leave it as free as the most virtuous act for the 
other man to buy, and drink, and pay for it! 
[Applause.] 

Now, that is making one half of an act a crime, 
and the other half not a crime. Do you not see 
that that is a false principle? that you cannot de- 
clare that a crime which is committed by two 
parties, and cannot be committed by one, and 
make it a crime in one and declare it no crime in 
the other? Therefore you see why th(! founda- 
tion principle of this whole legislation fails; for 
they do not dare to come forward and say, 
" Punish the man who buys as well as the man 
who sells." I 

But why not, if selling is a crime ? Why, what ! 
would these law-temperance folks say if you I 
should propose to make it a crime to sell a negro ! 
into slavery, and no crime to buy him? If you i 
should decuire that the man who sells him should 
be punished, but the man who buys him left u)i- 1 
molested to do with him as he pleased? Would I 
they not scout the idea? But do they not act upon J 
tills princijde in regard to the liquor traffic? The] 
man who sells and never drinks, says this Maine i 
law, shall be sent to the house of correction, | 
though he never would sell unless tempted to do 
so by a buyer. Rut the man who buys and drinks 
and commits the other half of the crime, he 
is only to be pitied and not to be punished at 
all? 

That is false legislation, wrong in morals, 
wrong in government, and therefore it has failed. 
For twenty years the law-temperance men have 
been at work drawing the strings tighter and 
tighter, until they had got the bow string up tight 
enough to strangle every dealer they could catch 
with a decanter on his shelf; and what has been 
the result? Why the tension has be(_'n so high, 
that the string has suddenly snapjied, and away 
has gone the Maine law. From Maine on the 
Atlantic side to California on the Pacific side the 
people are determined to sweef) this false legisla- 
tion into the sea, and now there is a reaction dan- 
gerous to th(! cause of temperance, even in its 
beautiful and healhful moral aspect. Such is the 
end of false and bad legislation inflicted on a peo- 
ple who choose their own law-makers. 



AKTI-SLA7ERT HAS INJURED THE AKTI-SLATERT 

CAUSE. 

Next let us examine the other evil which the 
Fusion Reformers are proclaiming "paramount" 
— the slavery question. That, too, is in pretty 
much the same hands, and runs on the same 
wrong track with the other "isms" of Lav- 
Temperance and Know Nothingisrn. 

The AboHtionists, Free-Soilers, and Anti-Sla- 
very men, of all shades, have been at work upon 
that matter for fifty years. The North began its 
aggressions upon 'the South from the day that 
Thomas Jefferson was elected President over 
John Adams; not for love of the slave, but lye- 
cause Jefferson was in a slave State, and the Fed- 
eral opponents of Democracy of that day played 
upon the philanthropy of the North to get up a 
{"fusion" to put down the Democracy of the 
South. 

The State of Massachusetts was the most hi- 
tensely Federal State in the Union, and thus 
inheriting the old Federal hate to JelTcrson, 
Louisiana, and the extension of territory, she is 
naturally now the most intensely abolition and 
southern hating State in the Union. And what 
has been the result of her operations against the 
Union based on this anti-slavery element? Her 
Legislature has always been meanly subservient 
to the dictation of a minority of political Aboli- 
tionists. Whether in the hands of Whigs, Dunv- 
ocrats, Coalitionists, or Know Nothings, any 
resolutions against slavery which a single Aboli- 
tion demagogue called for, were passed as a mattcr 
of course. It was thought safer to let the few 
demagogues have their way than to offend Vv'liat 
the demagogues and pulpit politicians called " tlic 
sentiment of Massachusetts on slavery." Heiice 
the demagogues and the canting pulpit politi- 
cians have had it all their own v/ay, and reason 
has not dared to stand np and combat error, 
Massachusetts has disgraced herself by sending 
volumes of anti-slavery resolutions to other States 
to insult them. We have had abolition preach- 
ing and anti-slavery lectures upon the " cause of 
freedom " as they call it, meaning tus;ro freedom, 
until now they tell us they have found the phi- 
losopher's stone to dissolve slavery and the Unimi 
together, and they are going to do it by " fusion. " 
And here they are, after fifty years of a sectional 
quarrel, kept up by a noisy, hollow-hearted fac- 
tion in New England, not so far advanced in 
negro freedom as we should have been if w; had 
just let the South alone upon slavery, and left 
each State free to carry out its own plans of 
melioration and gradual emancipation. 

RED jacket's plan OF FUSION. 

Why, all these anti-slavery people who taHc 
about "/ajic7i" to get rid of slavery, have not 
half the wisdom or shrewdness of the old Indian 
chief. Red Jacket, whose fusion plan was just 
about as jiractical, but more rational, and not so 
likely to dissolve the Union if carried into opera- 
tion. When Andrew Jackson was President of 
the United States, and the Legislatures of Virginin 
and Kentucky were freely discussing, like calm 
statesmen, the means of gradual emancipation, 
before the jwlilical Abolitionists threw in their 
fire-brands, it happened on one occasion, wheal 
Red Jacket called upon the President, that this 
subject of slavery was introduced, and the Presi- 
dent asked Red Jacket what ho thought could be 
done to getrid of slaves in thiscountry? "Why," 
said Red Jacket, " you must send all the colored 



women of the North South, and all the colored 
men of the South North, and in two or three 
generations j^ou will ^ct rid of it." [Laughter.] 
That was a much wiser proposition, and more 
Statesmanlike, than anything the Abolitionists 
bring up. How do they propose to get rid of it? 
Whjr, they say, go on and irritate; the South 
until you drive them out of the Union. Well, 
str[)posc you could do it — sujipose you drive 
them out of the Union — are there any less slaves 
in the country? Not one. Then you could not 
abolish slavery in the South, for it would be 
utterly beyond your reach. But they say, never- 
tlieless, let us keep up at the North an incessant 
noise and agitation about slavery. What good 
will that do ? It only exasperates the South , and 
doos not help the slaves. Then steal the negroes, 
ajid send them off on the underground railroad. 
How soon will you get three millions of slaves 
ofl'in that way? That will not do. 

Well, they say, if a fugitive slave comes here 
to Massachusetts, and they attemjH to send him 
back under the laws and Constitution, get all the 
anti-slavery people together, kill the marshal, 
kill everybody, and then have shootings and 
hangings, mobs and riots, and a real Jacobin 
French reign of terror, and all that about one 
negro ! How nmch has that done to abolish 
slavery, or to make Kansas a free State ? 

WHITE SLAVERY ATTEMPTED IN MASSACHUSETTS. 

Why, look at the wisdom and consistency of 
these "fiends of freedom," as they call tlieni- 
K--lvcs, above all others. They went into the 
Legislature of Massachusetts, without even a 
minority to ojipose them, and passed a law de- 
daring, that if the marshal of the United States 
aliould undertake to return a fugitive slave, 
imder a law of the Constitution which is just 
aa constitutional as the Constitution iiself, the 
whole military power of Massachusetts must be 
called out to shoot down the officers of the Gov- 
esaiment while in the discharge of their duty. 

A Voice "Good." 

Mr. HALLETT — Yes, good to show your 
lieels. [Applause.] I will tell you what you 
will have to nn^et that you call "good," on the 
fiide of laui; the soldiers of the tjnited States, 
the armed citizens who mean to stand by the 
Union against abolition mobs, the whole mili- 
tajy power of the United Slates called out by the 
President, if need be, to maintain the laws; ay, 
and the volunteer militia nf J^Iassachusctcs, who, if 
called upon by an abolition Governor under that 
Ircasonable act, will join the side of the Union, 
SMid help put down all traitors, rebels, and riot- 
ers! [Loud applause, and faint hissing.] These 
are the men who talk about resisting the laws of 
the Union, and when it comes to tlie point are 
the most arrant cowards in the world. They do 
not dare to look a brave man in the eye. 1 have 
Been them, and tested them, and know all about 
them. 

Now, I say, they made that treasonable nulli- 
fication law last winter, with reference to one 
^ngle black man; by which act they indicated 
tlieir willingness to involve this Commonwealth 
in a war with the United States, to put her out 
of the Union, to trample upon the compacts of 
the Constitution, upon every tiling sacred and 
holy, and violate the oaths they had solemnly 
taJien, — and all that for one black man. And 
then, on the very next page of the statute-book, 
Ujey put another act declaring that any white 



man who had come into this State should not bo 
allowed the rights of citizenship unless he had 
been born in tliis country. And by that act th<>y 
meant, if in their power, to take away all political 
rights from at least forty thousand white men in 
the Commonwealth of ^lassachuselts, while, at 
the same time, they were ready to go to war 
with the United States to save, unlawfully, tlw 
supposed rights of one negro. And forever hero- 
after, if this tt?ir«-American party rules, runaway 
negroes are to be received with open arms, and 
(!Very hunted patriot, fleeing from the tyranny 
of th(; Old World, to be denied an asylum, and 
sent back as a pauper! 

And is that thing to be our INIassachusetts ? 
Are such the men slie is to select to guide th« 
helm of State and take care of the prosperity and 
the honor of the old Commonwealth? 

What but discord, discredit, disgrace, if not 
(lisutiion,can come to Massachusetts or tlie North liy this un- 
availing and incessantly irritatiiiffagsression of the aliolition 
section of the North u|)oti the South.' Has all the agitation 
in Congress by a niinoi'ity evergained anything? Could >i)u 
fuse every voter of the North into an Abolitionist, and gc4 
a majority Abolition Congress and President, would yon 
gain anything then but disunion .' And if you sliould finally 
bring about what these Know Nothing fusion leaders in the 
North are using the voters of the North for, a disruption of 
the Union, what then have you gained but two Republics, 
one with slavery and one without? And 1 tell you that when 
two such Eepui)lics are formed, (if ever God leaves us to 
such judicial blindness.) and the runaway negroes from th« 
t^outh overspread your territory, then even if the South 
abandon them, and there is no civil war, you will liave to 
build lorty alins-hoases for their reception, and support them 
as paupers, or else send them out of the Commonwealth as 
a burden too grievous to be borne. And these very men, 
now the most clamorous for negro freedom, will be tha 
most earnest to have them sent back ! Let us see, gentle- 
man liberators, what your philanthropy amounts to. Here 
are a little rising of three millions of slaves in this country 
and twenty-five millions of white people. The proportion 
of these negroes, if freed, for Massachusetts, is about on« 
hundred and twenty thousand. Is she ready to open her 
arms and take this unformed mass to her bosom, and sU 
down with them in social and political frntornily ? Of course 
they are not to keep them at the South. They would he 
worthless and unavailing there just as in .Tamaiea. If iha 
South frees them out of compliment to the North, tlic North 
must take care of them. The South would not keep tin m, 
because then the South and West would be filled up by 
northern and foreisn laborers, who would flee from contact 
with the degraded free slave labor of the North, and (50 
South, and tlius the North would have negro labor, and tlva 
South the benefit and strength of free white labor, and in- 
stead of being our market, she would be our competitor, 
and the North would run down with the worst and most 
degrading " fusion" of pauper labor. So that if this fusion, 
anti-slavery scheme could possibly succeed either by civil 
war or consent of the South, it would just change the Nortli 
into a worse condition as to labor tl'.an th(! South by giving 
us all the negro labor — the worst kind of labor, free slavu 
labor — and all its consequent pauperism. 

Now the common sense of the North, the self-respect of 
her working men, will never follow any leaders, nor " fuso" 
into any formidable party Ibr such purposes or such resuitt 
as these. 

Fusion is useless, therefore, except to produce only wois* 
confusion on the slavery question. 

NON-INTEKVENTION THE ONLY CONSERVATIVE DOC- 
TRINE. 

What are we going to do about it then ? Let these agi- 
tators follow the advice of Jefierson, whom they aflect to 
quote. We of the South, said Mr. Jefferson in substance, 
have got the wolf by the cars, and if we l(,'t him go, he will 
tear us in pieces. All we can do is to hold on. So if you 
ask us what the States who have got no slaves shall do 
about slavery, the answer of the Democratic party is, lei it 
alone! Let those who have got the wolf hold on, or tame 
and loose him as they choose, and rlon't let us be tickling 
his tail to stimulate his rage, and compel his master to hold 
him tighter. fCheers.] 

How easy it is to let it alone, and instead of the seclionSj 
embroilment take care of the great interests of the State 
and country. What is it to Senator Seward, or any other 
nortliern man, if South Carolina, as he pretends, has Uej- 



ftivored dass of slaveholders, any more than it is to South 
Carolina, that New York and Massachusetts have their 
favored elapses of bankers, manufacturers, and merchant 
princes? The Constitution of the United States has no con- 
cern with it,bf?c'iusfi all these classes or privileges are created 
by State le<;islation, and the (General Government makes no 
war on either. Just so if the people of a new Territory or 
a. new State adapted to slave labor, insist upon bavins it, 
where do we of the North g('t the rislittolesjislate it out of 
tt Territory, any more tlian they of the South iiave to legis- 
late it in .' 

Your sentiments and mine are opposed to slavery, but is 
that any reason v.hy we should sji on a eriisade against the 
South to liberate the slaves, or make a battle-ground of a 
8f)utliern territory to keep it out.' No more than it is that 
we should -lo on a crusade into IJussia to free the serfs in 
Ihat country; and I confess I am rather more opposed to 
white slavery than to black slavery, though some people 
•eem to think there is no sympathy to be felt for a man 
unless lie be black. Even the Fu.;ioniits 4o not pretend to 
a right to interfere with Russia in her system of domestic 
white servitude, and yet wo have less right to intertere with 
South Carolina than we have with lUissia ; because an 
American has a right to expatriate himself and go to Russia 
and join the Poles, or get up a rebellion among the serfs, 
aad take his chance against the government of the Czar and 
Uie knout. 

But here even,- citizen is under a solemn vow and cove- 
nant, made by our fathers, that ho will not interfere. There 
fa the Constitution — what say.s that instrument.' "The 
United States! shall guaranty to every State in this Union 
8 republican form of government." That included slavery 
where the States chose to have it, for the framers of the 
Constitution found slavery existing as a settled institution 
In most of the thirteen independent States, and those inde- 
pendent States said — " We cannot make this Union unless 
you agree, in this Constitution, not to meddle with this do- 
mestic institution, and to deliver up our fugitives from ser- 
vice." It would be just as if thirteen families should come 
together, in six or seven of which black help were em- 

Cloyed, and in the others white help; and those who hi;d 
lack help said to tho.se who had white — You arc not to 
fnterfere with us in the matter of our help; and they all 
Bgreed to it and signed a solemn compact to that efiect; 
but by-and-by, after the families had been going on pros- 
perously and increased largely, and intermarried, for many 
years, sonie one family gets up and insists that the families 
which liav black help siiall give them up, and that no new 
family in the ncii;hliorhood formed out of the old ones shall 
be allowed to take the black help from the old families into 
the new ones ! What an uproar there i-uust be at once ! 
Now, we have solemnly sworn, i:i that Constitution, that 
we will not meddle with this question. Therefore, if we 
BrCt, in this State, with the direct purpose of interfering 
with the domestic servitude in any State, old or new, we 
violate the solemn obligations of onr oath to support the 
C.onsti:u'ion of the I'nited Stales, het us then be honest 
citizens and keep otir oaths, or go out of the Union if we 
cannot abide its laws, (^an any man of common sense 
read this clause in the Constitution and not understand it .' 

'• No person held to service or labor in one State, under 
file laws thereof, [and this means northern apprentices just 
B»! much as southern slaves,] escaping into another, shall, 
M> consequence of any lavi or rc.%ulation therein, be dis- 
charged from such service or labor ; but shall he delivered 
upon claim of the party to whom such service or labor 
may be due." 

There is the Constitution in just so many plain words ; 
mid yet these Know Nothings and Abolitionists went into 
Uie Legislature Last winter, and in the face of their oaths 
(U)d the Constitution, declared that he should not be " de- 
livered up." 

A Voice. « Good !" 

Mr. IIam.f.tt. That same voice says, " Good !" again. 
Yes, " Good" to violate an oath ! " Good" to be perjured 1 
" Good" to turn traitor to your country ! What good comes 
from perjury or treason? No, my friends, rather than per- 
jure yourselves upon this solemn pledge for the life of a 
Union, rather than go in the face of the Constitution, take 
the next step, you Fusion men, you Julius Rockwell men, 
you denationalized Democrats, you Know Nothings, all of 
you who have gone or arc going into this Fusion party, and 
say you are going against the aggressions of the slave power. 
Do not add hypocrisy to treason. Do not pretend that you 
can constitutionally violate the Constitution, that you can 
dissolve the Tliiion in the Union ; but take the next step, 
the bold and hom'st treason doctrine of Garrison and his 
ichool-.vi/. ; that the Constitution does pledge you to non- 
intervention with slav<'ry, and therefore you go against the 
Union as a covenant with death and hell ! Neither can 
you stop in Kansas or the new States. If you have power 
there you have power in the old States. That is only your 
tksl step. The iiext step in that UirecLiou ii> already marked 



out by the recent convention of radical Abolitionists held 
in no.ston, who declared that the ne.vt principle for the 
Fusion party to adopt was, that the Constitution di<l not .au- 
thorize slavery anywhere, and, therefore, we had a right 
under the Constitution to abolish it in all the Slates ! And 
farther, if that was not good doctrine, then they would put 
down the CoMStilulion and dissolve the Union ! That b 
only your next step; and that is the next step you all will 
take, Knovv Nothings and all, in the onward course of 
fusion to disunion, uidess we break your legs before you 
get tbire. as I verily believe we shall. [Laughter ;utei 
applause.] 

WHAT DO TUET MEiN BT THE SLAVE POWER.' 
Nov/, as to this " paramount issue," which the newr 
school call going against the arf^ressijiw of the slave poutr- 
What is it ? What is that slave power they have in view? 
To hear their orators talk you would suppose that the South 
had been committing some enormous outrage upon tlfe 
North. What is it? Ask onr merchants, mechanics, and 
businJ'ss men ; where is there anybody that h.as been 
harmed or robbed by the South? You cannot find any.- 
body. Then what is this " aggression of the slave power .'" 
I will tell you what the South has done which the old Fed- 
eral party never forgave, and the new Fusion party never 
will forgive. The Democratic parly of the North and the 
Democratic party of the South, standing together, havB 
governed this country by Democratic men a;id Democrat!* 
measures ever since 1801, when they elected Thomas Jef- 
ferson President. The Federal party, the National Repub- 
lican party, the Whig party, the Abolition p;irly, the Fnie- 
Soil parly, the Know Nothing party, the Fusion part^>— 
eveiy side i.ssue that has been got up from that day to ihia — 
has been a combination to break down the Democradc 
power that has wisely ruled this country ; and national 
Democracy, v/hich has triumphed only by tlie union of 
northern and so\ithern Democrats, they call the slave pow-er, 
in order to cry •' mad dog," and run it down ! 

That is it, brother Democrats ! Oh ! how I wish yoo 
could remember that! JIowI wish every Democrat through- 
out this broad land would stand on that rock when tlieee 
agitators and denouncers make their empty dcrlanntiona 
about the aggressions of the South upon the North ! Why, 
I ask you, if Democratic influences had not controlled this 
country, what would it have been ? A little margin of 
thirteen Atlantic States, and that is all. That is what tl» 
Federal party undertook to make these Stales in order to 
keep the political power. The Federal party had itj 
strength at the North, and so has all the opposition ft) 
Democratic administrations from Jefferson to Pieroe. 
Why did the old Federal party of the North assail tire 
South ? Because the South had Thomas Jefferson, and 
sustained him with the aid of the Democrats of the North! 
That was why they assailed tlie South. Thomas Jefi'ersT)ii 
took the lead'as the great head of the Demoeralic partv. 
John Adams was then the head of the Federal party of tlia 
North. The southern Democracy and the nortliern Do- 
mocracy rallied around Jeflerson ; and even in Massachu- 

■ setts, in 1804, the Democracy gave the vote of this State to 
Thomas Jelferson against John Adams, and they were 

'called for so doing the "Wn7c slaves of Virf^ini'i !" It 
, was by that union of the North with tlie South that tte 
I Democratic principles of this Government were established. 
! [There is a stand-point upon which every Democrat and 
I every Union man should place himself to overlook thii 
qiu\stiou of pretended aggressions of the slave power uprm 
the North, .\dinirably, cogently, has this topic been pre- 
sented with elaborate research, in an article by the llosttm 
i Post, published in that paper of November 1, (and Slateu- 

■ man, Noveml)er 2.) headed " The Democratic Farty caid 
\ the Jllle^cd Slave Power.''] 

\ UNION OF NOnxHERN AND SOUTHERN DEMOCRATS.. 
! And how has it been since 1801 ? In fourteen presidential 
1 elections, eleven have been carried solely by the union of 
I tlie northern and southern Democracy; and whenever the 
I Federal pa.-ty, or the National Republican party, or th» 
I Whig party,' or the hard cider party, have stolen int» 
i power, (three times only in all that period,) how have the^ 
I done it? Uy ant i slavery lecturers, and political parsons,, 

and renegade Demoemis, tiaveling over the North, and 
, telling the Democrats that the slave power was enslaving 

them, and picking their pockets, and they nuist go against 

■ the slave power! And thus, once or twice in our history, 
enough diduded Democrats have been carried over to tlie 

' Federalists, the Whigs, and the Abolitionists, to put down 
j the Democratic power of the North and South combined 
; together. That is what these Fusion and Know Noibin" 
j conspirators arc after now ; the old game ot divide aud 
conquer. 

j Thus \ye find Mr. William 11. Seward, of New York, be- 
ginning bis campaign against the Constitution by crying 
I out about the " oligarchy of the South." By that cry ol 



" mad dog " lie means the Democracy of the South, which, 
whuu it unites with the Democracy ol the North, has al- 
ways boon invincible and always carries this country. It 
is the oligarch vol" the Democratic people, North and South, 
Which, iMr. Seward knows, ifunited, will he too strong' for 
his "Fusion oligarchy," which he wants to make liim 
Prt;sidfnt, that he may crush out the Democracy of the 
i^utli, and tlien easily conquer the Democracy of the 
Noj-th. 

THE TRIUMPUS OF THE UNITED DEMOCRACY, NORTH 
AND SOUTH. 

Fellow Democrats, he not deceived. Who put down the 
tyranny of the alien and sedition laws? Who purchased 
Louisiana and Florida? Who secured the iiaviifi.tiou of 
tbe niii'lity Mississippi? Who fought for free trade and 
Kiilors' rights? Who carried the country ihrougli the sec- 
ond war of independence in ISlii? Who prostrated tiie 
paper-money power, tlie United titatcs Banii? Who gave 
you a sound currency, an Independent Treasury, the great 
balance wheel of trade and connncree ? Who put an end 
Uy tlie nullilicatiou of lbi!3, and linally established a just 
tariil' that all now acquiesce in? Who annexed Texas? 
Who put down the Wiluiot proviso? Wlio carried the 
country tlirough the Mexican war with glory, and gave to 
the coninierco'and trade of the North the golden Califor- 
uia? And finally, who has expanded this country from 
ftwrteon States, and brought into the Union seventeen 
itcw States with all the rights of the old States, with or 
without slavery as the people ofeacii State chose to have it: 
Who has done all this for your country ? The Democratic 
parly, the Democrats of the Northand Houthmiited togetlier! 
tLoiid applause.] That is what these narrow-uunded see- 
tipnal men of the North, these bigots and Know Nothings, 
sUguiatize as '• the slave power." 

Now i will sit down with any one of the Free-Soilers or 
Know Nothings, or Fusion men, and beginning at 1801, 1 
Will trace every measure of liberal and enlarged state^mau- 
sliip, every great act of tliis Government for the good of the 
\Shole Union, everytlih'.g that has expanded its territory, 
arci'ything that has enlarged and demoerati/.ed its influence, 

feiythiiig that has elevated its giory abroad, everytlhng 
at has insured its tranquillity at home, and one by one 1 
will show you that they have been aceoniplished by the 
(Iiiitcd votes of tlie northern and southern Democracy. 
Whenever a Democratic measure has failed, whenever 
Biddle carried his charter for a bank, whenever tlie Sub- 
I'teasury was cheeked, whenever a high tarilf has been 
imposed, it has been owimg to a division of northern Deni- 
crerats from those of the South, and allowuig the Federal 
Whig party to come in and Uilie the power. That is tlie 
way It has been done; and taking all the history of the past 
and looking to the future, you may rest assured, that wheri- 
es'er these men, wi til their insidious sneers about the '-ilave 
power," can bring about a separation and alienation be- 
tv^eeu the northern and soatheni Democracy, they will 
open the v>"iy to an entire change or dissoluti<ni of lJ(?mo- 
<^atic government, and strike a talal blow at the best in- 
terests of tills country, — at the only party in whose hands 
t^«e intcresL'^ have b..cn or can remain safe. 

Tell me, after seventy years of such statesmansliip, tell 
toe that 1, as a Democrat, am to turn my back upon those 
true men of the Souih and frat-eriiize with — (>od knows 
who! Ves! who are these leaders of Know Nothings, 
.^bolitionists, Fusionists, and all the paltry isms of the day 
^lat make Massachusetts a political liedlain? We never 
saw these men (except a i'ew wo always knew to be soft 
aad uncirtahi) in the Democratic ranks, ligiiting for us in 
tpiy of these great battles of principles. When they pre- 
ttinded to staiid on a Democratic platform, we always lound 
Qiem upon some plank that had a side issue to it, and 
niiudiiig so narrow on that as only to get on tlie edge of it! 
[Applause.] Let us not take counsel of these narrow- 
Ciiiidcd nK'ii. Let us look all over the countiy, and then 
We shall see where our largest and truest interests lie. 
Above all things let the northern and southern Deinocracy 
sUiiii together in this coming crisis of the Union, as tliey 
have sljod together, and Uiuiiiphed together, tor half a ceii- 
tuj-y of glory ! 

TJiE *' NEBRASKA INICIUITT " — THE " KANSAS CCT- 
RAGE." 

Well, some of you'tell me that may do as to past ineas- 
Vfcs, but how can we of the North submit to this horrible 
<lutrage;,of the South 'in the '• Nebraska iniquity" and the 
BLansas bill? The fusionists, driven tiom every other 
position, staudion this alone. Their whole doctrine (if 
fepnator Sinnncr,,is its expounder) is that there shall be no 
slavery;)!! any Territory or new State. Tiiis is only the 
Old Wilmol proviso. Excluding that proviso, putting it 
d.own,ol)literating^the black luie, as the whole Democracy 
sgroed to do iu the compromises of 1B50, aad the glorioiui 



election of General Tierce in 1S52, is the whole principle 
of the Nebraska and Kansas bill. That is (he " iniijuity," tli» 
" terrible outrage," the '" aggression of the slave power,** 
against which you are told all friends of freedom must 
"fuxe,'' for the purpose of preventing Kansas from becoia- 
ing a slave State. 

Now, if the men who started this hunt had only followed 
the principle of the Nebraska bill, viz : left it to tlie people, 
Kansas would inevitably have been a free State. 1 do nol 
know what she will he now. These Fusion, Know Noth- 
ing men have gone there with their propagaiidirJin of aboli- 
tionism, and tlie South has met lln^m with the propagand- 
ism of slavery. If northern Abolitionists and southern 
slaveholders wish to make that Territory a battle-grouncL 
let them tight it (>ut.— at the ballot-box, I hoi)!— but even if 
at the point of the bowie knife, what is the (iovernment of 
these United States, what arc the other States of the Union 
gohig to do about it, in Congress or out of it? Are tliey 
going to take sides and hriiig on a civil and a servile war 
between the North and South? 

They say the President should have sent an army therw. 
What pover has he there ? If he had moved a single stop, 
with a single company of dragoons, the country would 
have been in an uproar, and the cry would have re- 
sounded on every hand, "Military Usurper 1" "Ty- 
rant !" '• Violator of the Constitution !" He has no such 
power. What would have been the elfecthad lie attempted 
such a power? If it be a fact that they are divided between 
emigrants from tlie North, and emigrants or interlopena 
from the South in Kansas, how are you going to settle it 
by the whole Union interfering? If the President sendona 
body of troops there to aid the norlhern portion, Missouri 
will send another body to help the southern portion. If 
you rally at the North to sustain the troops the President 
has sent, they will volunteer at the South on the other 
side ; and wlien you have got an army there of fifty thou- 
sand men, on either side, then they may fight, if tliere is 
courage in these Fusion men at the North to go South and 
fight. "Courage!" no, folly. The North does not lack 
courage ; it has got courage enough ; but 1 do not think il 
has got fools enough to go to Kansas to fight on such a 
que.'ition as this, [.\pplause.] 

What have you got to do, then ? Why, let it alone ! ll 
T\ill take care of itself. Leave the question of slavery or 
no slavery in Kansas just where our fathers left that qoos- 
lion,ta God and the pcojjle ! [.'\.pplaUL:e.] 

THE PRlNCirLE OF THE KANSAS BILL. — POPULAJS. 
RIGHTS. 

Now, what is the principle of that Kansas bill? Why 
have the Democratic party come to that doctrine ? Will 
you consider the argument a moment? No, no, clamor 
the Fusionists and Know Nothings, you have violated a 
solemn compact ! Well, is it worth while for these men 
to talk about the violation of a compact in a mere legisla- 
tive enactment, v.lien they trample upon the soleimi com- 
pacts of the Constitution ? They are not the men to re;»d 
us lessons on that head. Hut here comes the argument, 
the reason why Democrats abide by the Kansas bill, ajid 
will make that an issue on which tliey will carry the next 
President. Ever since the Missouri compromise of 16-20^ 
Congress has been kept in turmoil and agitation on thia 
subject of slavery. It got to be so great a nuisance in 
breeding demagogues, that tiie people could not have any 
wholesome legislation. Private and public interests weie 
alike thrown aside, because this angry subjcctof slavery was 
being brought up at all times. Now, so long as Congress 
undertook to exercise the power to prohibit or authorizw 
slavery in the Territories, that sore of agitation was kepi 
open, and the men who got to Congress upon this deniiv- 
gogism kept irritating and irritating it, until it would ha\"9 
destroyed the Union, had not some stop to the plajue baen 
found. What did the statesmen of the country do? The/ 
said, " Let us look at this matter. It belongs to the States, 
and the people in the States must take care of it. Tha 
same principle is equally sound when applied to the people 
of a Territory. Instead of saying whetlicr slavery shall or 
shall not exist in the Territories, v\e will organize the Ter- 
ritories and let the peojile there settle it for themselves. 
Tliey vvill know best what is for their interest." 

That is the principle of the Kansas bill. There is not a 
man here, probably, who has ever read the Kansas bill. 
The Free-Soil lecturers do not read it to the people. It bi 
one of the most Di:mocratic things in the world. It pro- 
vides that every actual resident siiall be a voter at the fitst 
election, and then the Legislature shall fix the qualilicn- 
tions ; That those only shall be niembors of the first I>e- 
gislature who are " duly declared by the Governor to hava 
the highest number of /c^r-J votes." So that the Kansas 
Legislature, bad as it may be, was certified by Governor 
Reeder to have received the highest nu.mber of legal votes. 
Then, wten it came to act and pass laws, it had Uie sacM 



rights to make laws uniler the Constitution its the Lcjisla- 
Inre of MasEacliusctts had, and it can haidly liave pajisod 
more lawless acts than that Legislature did 1 The powers 
of legislation established by the Kaasaa and Nebraska acta 
are in tliesc words: 

"The Icsiskitive power shall extend to all riiihtful snh- 
|octs of le^islLiiion consistent with the Conslitution of the 
Unit<!d Statjs and this act. It being the trne intent and 
raeanins of this act not to lejislale t-lavery into any Terri- 
ti>ry or State, nor to exclude it tlierofroni, hut to leave the 
2>e}plc //teres/' perfectly free to form and ri.'ynlate tlieir 
(loinestic institutions In their own way, subject only to the 
CJonstitution of the United Suites." 

Is not that sound Democratic doctrine .' Is anybody op- 
posed to tliat.' '• Hut there is a sect of ' border rufiiaiis,' " 
Uiey say, " wlio invade that Territory from the other side 
ot' the river, and control the elections."' 'J'hatis all wrong, 
sad will re.act a»ainsl the wrong-doers ; bwt if there is wrong 
done, wo caiinot cure it by civil war. 'J'he voters, by the 
Kan.ia.s act, at the first election, were to be ''actual resi- 
douts." What is "an actual rc-jident" in Kansas'! Are 
wp to settle it in other States, or niu.-;t they settle it there 
for themselves.' A mangoes into Kansas and swears to- 
d.ty, " I am an actual resident." They cannot dispute him, 
for it rests in his own mhid and purpose, and they take his 
vote; an.l in that way all tlicse men that go ihore from 
Missouri, if not residents, must have taken I'alse oaths, and 
perjured tlienisclves. But, you say, behind that is the 
p<jwer of the Government, and it ounjit to interfere. That 
U a mistake. We should thank God that the President 
oi' the United States has no such power. He has power to 
execute the laws of the United States, whenever they are 
resisted, but he has no right to pass judg/nenton the acts of 
« legislative body acting under an organic law. 

Governor Reeder himself organized the IjCgislature of 
Kansas, under the organic law of tlie Territory, and v.'hen 
they got together they had the power of other Legislatures, 
ttiid tli''y p.'oscribed the qualifications of voters under the 
Oonstituiion. Can the President interfere .' Shall not the 
Kansas Legisiaturc have that right.' We have it here in 
Massachusetts ; do you mean to give it up to so;nebody 
Ofee .' and if not, will you take it away from them .' 

I5ut the Legislature of Kansas, you say, have abused 
fiMiir powers. Very likely. Tiiat is just wh.at the Know 
Nothings liave done herein Massachusetts most abomin- 
ably, but are we going to have Kansas interfere to regulate 
tliose abuses? No! Then wliat business have you to go 
U> Kansas to legislate for them or regulate them, if they 
liare abused their powers .' 

WHO SHALL MAKE THE LOCAL LAWS OF A 
TERIUTORY.' 

And this brings u; to the simple question, shall Congress 
make local laws for a Territory, or shall the people oi' the 
Territory make tlieir own local laws? Democrats say yes. 
Fusionists say no, the people of the 1'erritories skall not 
have the right of self-government, and the new States s/ja/I 
twrf have the same rights when they come into the Union 
that Massachusetts haa. There we take i.ssue upon this 
plain, open, practicable, Jeliersonian doctrine, that the 
psopl,-; of every |).olitical community shall have the riglit 
" to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their 
•wn way, subject only to the Constitution of the United 
States." Tliat is the Kansas bill ; and now I may ask, are 
3^u in favor of freedom, or are you in favor of slavery for 
rMte men in Kan.sas? If you say that they are not to be 
trusted, b:;cause you fear they will carry .slaves from other 
Stiitos into Kansas, then you deny self-government of the 
people, and go for while slavery in Kansa.s, under the self- 
canceit.^d pretense that you can govern for iliem better than 
Uioy can govern for tlmmsclves. 

THE CONSCIENCE ISSUE APPLIED TO KANSAS. 
But yon insist that your conscience will not allow you to 



LlBR<^'^'^ 



OF COHGRE^v 




;oing on in thts 
eat many things 
t can't help, anJ 
- ^^- It has bsun so 
I.. ^ ftA3 ^ ilitieal tiimioiL 

Tin A 89' ...; niaydesiro th.at Kan- 

s ft V>T. »■ ..,. «ii<i ifAi^c State, there will not b8 

t! , ^i a single slave more in this Union should 

sh., oeconie only n. free wkite Slate. The question is not 
wh(!thcr freemen, black or white, shall he made slaves, but 
whether some portions more or less of the slaves living on 
one side of a river or State line shall live on the other sidw 
and still be slaves,or continue to be slaves wliere tin y now 
are? Is this so great a matter, then, of such awful " para^ 
mount" interest as a one id<;a, thai the North is bound to {b> 
on a crusade against the South under these Abolition atui 
Know Nothing missionaries, and drive slavery out of Kan- 
sas or drive the South out of the Union ? 

What avails it now to talk of repealing the N(!braslBi 
bill ? There it is a law of this Union, and the Deinocratili 
party of the Union are ready to meet it as an issue, be- 
cause it is the only conservative doctrine conciuntjig 
slavery as an incident in our State governments, upon 
which the whole country, South and North, can repose ia 
peace. Hereafter, when we settle this one princi|)le, (.is 
we sh.'ill in the next presidential election,) by applying ft 
to Territories the same as to States, we can go forward 
peacefully in the great mission of covering this continent 
all over with independent States bound together in this 
glorious Union. The people of no Territory or ni.'w Stala 
will have slavery unless tl'.ey permanently desire it as a 
fixed clement in their domestic institutions. Should it at 
first be forced upon a Territory by " border ruffians" or In- 
terlopers, the reaction of the will of the permanent settler* 
will be the more efficient in the end in excluding it. Thitj^ 
if the real and permanent people of Kansas shall resolv* 
upon having a free State, including blacks, Kansas will 1m 
free, without slaves, within her territory. But if her peoplsi, 
deliberately looking at their own affairs, resolve that slM 
shall be a free State with slaves in it, (for that is the obIt 
difference between free and slave States in this Union,) I 
do not know what right we of the North have to interfena. 
All we can say to her is, we think you liave the worst of 
it ; you have got to hold the wolf by the ears, and we will 
not tickle hi.s tail to enrage lihn, or to rend the UuiDB, 
[Apijlause.] 

SLAVE REPRESIINTATION. 

As to the argument touching slave representation, re 
much the worse for Kansas. Jf she, like the South, ha» 
slave labor, it excludes justso much free labor, and so v-eob- 
e;!.s her political power, as it doi's In all the slavelioldfiKf 
States; for the slaves, who exclude free laborers from th« 
population, count in the ratioofre[i',osenlatiiin(notin ro<in& 
as fools and knaves construe the Constitution on that point) 
but three in five ; whereas the laborers of the Nortlk, 
wliathor voters or non-voters, count like men, five in five. 
Strange inconsistency that the Abolitionists should coin- 
plain that a negro counts too much when he counts oiily 
three in five to the whiles! 

Therefore, my friends, let us repose in confidence upofl 
this sound Democratic principle of self government. Statu 
rights, and fidelity to the Constitution. When wo bring lit* 
anti -slavery lecturers, and the fusion demagogues, and tb» 
Know Nothings down to this plain, practirtal, common- 
sense issue, they have no resource but invective against tha 
" slave power " and the " slave oligarchy ;" and there let 
them rail ; and so God help us anil incline our hearts to 
love the Union, and we of the northern and soutliern na- 
tional Deiuoeracy wilh the Union loving men of all parties 
acting with us, will stand togetlier and vole them down hi 
the next presidential election, as we have done for fifty 
years, and thus continue to preserve the Union and lb« 
rights of ihe States iu epite of foes wilhout and tiaitoa 
within ! [Cheers.] 



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